Around the Schools
Schmitz Park Elementary treats Roxhill Elementary to 'Living Voices' performance
Roxhill Elementary fourth-graders were treated to a Living Voices performance of a Native Vision Nov. 10 as a gift from the PTSA of a neighboring West Seattle school, Schmitz Park Elementary.
Living Voices are educational programs that blend live performances with archival films, audio and photos to bring history to life for the audience.
With more than 80 percent of Roxhill students on free and reduced-priced lunch, Roxhill did not have the resources to pay for performances of this type. The Schmitz Park PTSA paid for the Living Voices performance at their school and gifted Roxhill with an additional performance.
During the Native Vision performance, Lisa Gladstone, a Blackfoot Indian from Browning, MT engaged students in the story of Alice, a Navajo girl sent to a government-run boarding school in the 1930s and 40s.
Alice became a nurse in the Pacific during World War ll, struggling to keep true to her native culture in a changing world. Before the performance, Roxhill students had read about and discussed how native children fared in the boarding schools and had also learned about the contributions of the Navajo Code Talkers.